Eliza Barclay

Like its parent music, film and interactive festival, this conference is all about networking, which means parties. The young crowd takes full advantage of Austin's food trucks and bars.

Scientists hyping synthetic biology say it may one day give us biofuels, drugs and organisms that will solve hefty global problems. But synthetic biology food is already here, and causing controversy.

Huddle House says its customers don't want healthy options or calorie counts. But by defying healthy trends, the chain seems increasingly — and unapologetically — out of step with the competition.

Saffron, vanilla, palm oil, cacao and cottonseed oil crops are still picked by hand in some parts of the world. Sometimes that manual labor shows up in the price of the food; sometimes it doesn't.

There's no such thing as plain vanilla — at least if you're talking about beans from the vanilla orchid. Whether it's from Tahiti or Madagascar, vanilla can be creamy, spicy or even floral.

The world's largest food company is requiring all of its suppliers of dairy, meat, poultry and egg products to comply with tighter animal welfare standards. Animal rights groups applaud the move.

A Canadian scholar was unimpressed with the cookbooks available for people on food stamps in the U.S. So she decided to come up with her own set of tips and recipes for eating well on $4 a day.

Ivory Coast is the world's No. 1 producer of the cacao beans that are the base of our beloved chocolate bars. But as a TV report shows, some cacao farmers have never enjoyed the final product.

A group of environmentalists in Vermont aren't at all squeamish about "pee-cycling." A local hay farmer is using their pee as fertilizer as they run tests to find out how safe it is for growing food.

Some of us now monitor our steps, sleep and calorie intake with wristbands and apps. So why not track blood-alcohol levels? We explore the next frontier in the self-measurement movement.